


As The Snow Falls On This FILTHY, VILE CITY OF HORSE MOO!

by Kori_Miraju



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Character Death, Christmas, Drama, Eventual Happy Ending, Future Fic, M/M, One Shot, Science Fiction, Short, Suspense, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 22:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17150318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kori_Miraju/pseuds/Kori_Miraju
Summary: Dib has a late visitor on a bitter cold winter night who tells him earth is doomed. Well duh! Zim has been trying to destroy it for years now, what's the big whoop? Faced though with the decision to believe Zim or not, Dib carries the weight of his choices. Time to try and save Earth once more Dib! I think...Made for Christmas.Simple One-shot.*ZaDr*





	As The Snow Falls On This FILTHY, VILE CITY OF HORSE MOO!

“I surrender.”

Zim’s presence at the human boy’s front door was strange this time of night, but that wasn’t what startled Dib most. When he had answered the door, Zim didn’t barge in, or start ranting, or say a word actually. He had just stood there, just as he was standing there now, cold and emotionless, the wind catching the ends of his clothes and rustling them against his still green skin.

“No you don’t.” Dib argued back, unsure of what else he was supposed to say in this sort of situation. “What kind of stupid setup is that, Zim? I’m not falling for that one.”

“I have no reason to lie, human. There is nothing left I can do. I am beaten. I surrender.”

“Close the door, you dumb-head!” Gaz’s disgusted voice rang out behind the boy. “Stop letting all the cold air in!”

It was December. Cold; winter cold. Snowy and breezy enough to chill you to death. Dib sneered back at his sister for the hotheaded remark but realized quickly that it was the right thing to do. Stepping out into the frosty night air, Dib closed the door, secluding himself and the alien there on his front porch.

“Now then,” Dib said once he had crossed his arms and curled in his toes for warmth. “what stupid nonsense are you spouting this time?”

“Must you make me say it again?”

Dib blinked in actual concern. Zim’s head was hung so low that Dib could barely catch the outline of his eyes. He wasn’t even bothering wearing a disguise today, although it was late enough that probably anyone who was out and about right now likely would have passed him by with just the thought that he was yet another late night freak roaming the filth and trash ridden streets.

“Whatever trick you’re trying to pull is pretty lame. And let me guess, you’re going to say there’s some great evil approaching the Earth that you can’t stop. And how you need my help to defeat it just to lure me in to your base so you can capture me and destroy mankind.”

“The earth is beyond even your help, Dib.” Zim’s head lifted and glowing slits for eyes gazed up at the boy, not in the way they would have before in conniving satisfaction, but of listless death that you would normally see in a man broken by years of taco labor. “He’s coming.”

“Who’s coming?” Dib almost whispered with sincerity this time, the conversation becoming to serious for him to try and play it off as some stupid ploy.

Zim lifted his head even higher now, standing himself at full height to gaze at the human in front of him.

“The Exterminator.”

Dib didn’t like that sound of that.

“Who’s that?”

“I don’t know what planet or race he is from but he destroys all life forms of any planet he chooses. Not for universal conquest but for the sheer pleasure of it. He is ruthless, commanding a small army aboard his ship, he crosses the galaxy at random searching out interesting planets to wreck his havoc upon.”

“Doesn’t your kind do the same?”

“What Irken’s do is nothing like that, you imbecile!”

“But it’s pretty much exactly the same. You conquer and destroy worlds and so does this exterminator guy. So why should I be afraid?”

“Because he bested me, you fool!”

Zim looked like he was ready to bare his teeth into Dib’s skin and tear the flesh off his face with the anger that flowed out of him. Dib took a small step back, his instincts telling him to keep a hand near the door handle of his home in case he needed to run away fast.

“My base,” Zim broke, his voice choking back a sob. “that fiend hacked it. He found my records, my data, everything. And afterwards he fried it. All of it. Gone.”

“Your base is gone…?” Dib relayed back, saying the words out loud as a sort of conformation to himself.

Zim gazed off to the side, his arms pinned like icicles to his green frame.

“So… now what?” The boy asked after an awkward moment of silence between them.

“Nothing.” Zim replied gravely as his eyes wandered upwards to look at the fluttering flakes of snow casually drifting down to the grimy streets. “There is nothing that can be done.”

“Yeah there is or you wouldn’t be here talking to me.” Dib retorted with a shiver afterwards.

“My base is fried, DIb. I have no way of calling for reinforcement. Even if I did, they wouldn’t make it here in time.”

“Alright. So lets make something! A weapon, a laser, something!” There was an agitation settling inside the boy from such a fruitless conversation thus far. “Stop acting so pathetic and powerless! Come’on! Tell me how to fight these guys!”

Alien lips widened slightly before teeth clenched audibly and angrily together.

“There’s not enough time. Don’t you get it?!” Zim spat in his own growing agitation. “Your world is doomed.”

“This is stupid! Why did you come out here if the only thing you were gonna tell me was that we’re all gonna die?!” Dib huffed into the air, a cloud a white shrouding his face for a moment afterwards.

“I-!” Zim began but stopped abruptly, his mouth gaped and stubborn. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?” Dib’s human arrogance spat back at the creature.

Zim took his hands together and wrung them. Dib couldn’t tell if it was for warmth or out of embarrassment.

“I don’t know why I came here.”

A furious wind ate at them both suddenly, causing the boys to scrunch their bodies and hold in whatever warmth still existed inside them.

“It’s freezing out here, Zim! Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow?”

The question was impetuous considering Dib knew there was a chance Zim wasn’t lying and that earth was in fact in grave danger but standing out in the cold of a December night yelling at each other wasn’t helping their chances of coming up with any way to prevent it. And if this was some stupid ploy, Dib’s best chance of not falling for it was to ignore Zim’s premonition completely and go have a nice and warm nights sleep.

“Tomorrow…” Zim’s face dropped again.

With the sound of the wind smothering the aliens low speech, Dib couldn’t quite make out the last thing he said but it sounded something like “there might not be a tomorrow.”

“Come on. Go home, Zim.” Dib said before he shivered from the top of his head all the way down to the ends of his toes.

The alien said nothing but turned on his heel after a moment and began to walk away.

There was a strange pang in Dib’s chest as he watched the creature trudge his way down the street. He seemed so defeated, so grim, but there was nothing to do about that now. When day came, then Dib could see for sure the truth or lies of Zim’s words.

Dib walked into his house, relishing in its warmth in comparison to the outside.

“What did Zim want?” Gaz questioned lethargically, not even bothering to look at her brother as she spoke.

“Not sure." He answered calmly, brushing a few flakes of snow from his hair and trying to think back through all Zim had said. "Maybe something in his base fried and he wanted to steal something to fix it.”

“Pfft. Boring.” Gaz sneered.

There was still a hesitation and tightness in his chest though, one that he wanted to eradicate before the night was over. Several hours passed before Dib even noticed. With the little technology he had available in his room, he scanned interplanetary surveillance footage for anything out of the ordinary before deciding to give up. Nothing was coming up on any radars about any possibly strange meteor showers or any other signs that an invasion was near.

“Just a bluff?” Dib wondered out loud as he flopped down on his bed. “But why? He looked so…”

Serious. That was the word that wouldn’t come out of the boys mouth. If he said it out loud then that would mean that somewhere in the back of his mind he believed that rotten no good alien. Dib groaned and rolled around on his bed, stretching his limbs out to grab at his covers and twist his body around them.

“Sleep. Sleep is good.” Dib assured himself, trying to banish Zim’s words from his mind.

The boy hunkered himself down, righting the blankets and snuggling properly underneath them before working his way up to the pillow for his head to rest on.

“Sleep.” Dib murmured again, closing his eyes this time to help in the process.

But sleep never came. For hazy hours Dib tossed, trying to find just the right spot to help the darkness overtake him, but it wouldn’t bite. Silent time passed and every time the boy closed his eyes, all he could see was Zim’s broken face, his bared teeth, his shivering body-.

Dib re-opened his eyes wide this time in a near panic, a strange realization just now taking hold. Zim had been shivering. Although he had tried to hide it or hold it in, Dib guessed, when that fierce wind had passed them the alien had recoiled into himself just like he had. In fact, Zim’s entire body had barely moved during that entire conversation even though he had gotten angry at least once with the human.

Dib thought hard. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Zim didn’t get cold. He had his Irkin wear to protect him, and Dib knew that well from all the previous adventures he had had stopping the alien from destroying the earth each Christmas.

The boy rolled over on his bed, lifting his head just a tad to look outside his bedroom window. White flurries still scattered the view but the wind seemed to have died down a bit. Glancing over at the thermometer on the pane, it read six degrees Fahrenheit. Ice cold. And Zim’s base was fried…

With a strange panic, Dib scrambled out of bed, setting his feet to the carpet with total denial of how crazy he was acting. He scurried to put on some layers. Thermal pants, one sweater, then another, and then his favorite red jacket, some snow boots, a grey scarf and some gloves. Bundled up and warm, Dib crept out of his room, not wanting to wake any of his family up as he left. Even when he reached the living room he still moved along slowly. No one could know what he was doing, actually he didn’t quite know what he was doing either…

With steady motions the boy unlocked his front door and slipped outside. The breeze was still. Thank whatever supernatural forces in the galaxy there were for that. Snow had piled up rather nicely on his front porch and his boots made a solid indent in it as he crunched his way forward down the sidewalk. Well there would be no lying to his dad in the morning that he hadn’t left home now, not with his footprints obviously trailing behind him.

Dib knew the way to alien’s base by heart, in fact he could probably have gotten there half drunk or half asleep with ease if he ever tried. It was muscle memory, but every step he took felt more weighted than the last and an odd fear strangled his chest and caused him to painfully cough often. The street lamps became more prevalent as he walked, the brightness of them taking away a bit of fear on the desolate streets, but not enough to ensure a young boy like him wouldn’t get jumped or mugged. Still with steady yet flustered steps Dib walked. Down one street, then another, not even bothering to look at the street names, just knowing the area so well that any mailbox, fence line, or hobo was indication enough of where he was.

The cul de sac Zim lived on was normally quiet already but tonight it looked darker and more desolate than usual. The sudden sight made Dib's skin crawl as he slowly approached the alien's walkway before he even realized that he had already made it so far.

Zim hadn’t been lying… His base was black. Not a single light shining inside or out of it. In fact, there were large holes in the roof and debris scattered about the yard. Looking at it was like looking at a haunted house, abandoned for years and spoken about to scare little girls at sleep-overs. A small voice in the boy’s head told him to turn back, that going in that house was suicide.

“Damn…” The boy whispered to himself with sudden regret. He hadn’t listened, hadn’t believe him, even though the alien stood before him baring his soul, he had told him to go home.

Balling his fists together, Dib stepped forward into his nemesis’ yard. He wasn’t expecting an ambush but some movement would have made the place less creepy. The gnomes were in their normal positions, covered by a foot of snow. Dib couldn’t help but scowl at the robots as he passed them by, those big leering eyes still trying to catch the boy off guard. Damn garden gnomes. As he approached the door, Dib wondered if he should knock or not, but his question was answered when he noticed that the door was open, not wide open for all to see but about six inches cracked, just enough that when you reached it one would think to simply walk in.

“Zim?” Dib spoke as he pushed the barrier away and put one foot inside the residence.

No sound answered and Dib swallowed down a chunk of saliva that blocked his fear gripped throat.

“Zim.” Dib whispered this time while his face twitched and his fingers fumbled to take out the flashlight from his coat pocket, a cold wind streaming past him as he stood in the doorway.

There was still no response to his call. With a deep breath, Dib tried to calm himself. He knew most of the aliens facade house by heart too, which meant that so long as he didn’t open the closest where the fake parents were and didn’t release the robot ninja rats out of the trash can, he would be fine. Waving the flashlight from side to side, the boy walked through the living room. The house looked even more pathetic now that it did before. The whole place in general was always a bit creepy but in the dark it was worse. Weird paintings, hardly any furniture, and a super large TV that Dib was sure should have caused the alien to go blind by now. Shuffling his way in a little farther Dib struck something with his foot, causing him to yell a bit even though the sensation hadn’t hurt him.

“What was…” The boy pointed the flashlight to the floor, immediately finding what he had struck.

It was Gir. Colorless, lifeless, nothing more than a hunk of metal discarded on the living room floor with a strange eerie smile still stuck on its face. Dib gazed at the scrap for a moment, his anxiety growing as bile began to build in his stomach. He could smell it too, the scent of charred fuses coming from the robot, it left a metallic taste in his mouth. Like blood. He felt sad suddenly though. After all, even if that had been just a robot, it had spoken to him, played around him, terrorized him a couple times, but now… Dib imagined something awful, something terrifying in the darkness all around. What else could possibly be in here? And was it all dead or fried like Gir? Dib fought down his panic, trying to calm his mind and his stomach.

“He was hooked up to the computer when The Exterminator hacked my system.”

Dib nearly screamed as the soft voice spoke to him. The boy whirled around, flashlight pointing in the direction the sound had come from.

“Zim!” The boy spoke with breathless relief from the shock, but his relief was short lived. Zim wasn’t even looking at him. He was seated on the ground, leaning his back against the open door frame between the living room and kitchen, his body motionless and his eyes gazing straight ahead at the wood paneling.

“I tried to reboot him…”

Dib strode forward hastily, falling to his knees next to the creature as his humanly compassion told him to. The boy wasn’t sure what to do now but as he looked at his nemesis he could see exactly what he had feared.

Zim was dying from the cold.

Licking his bottom lip for concentration, Dib took off a glove from his hand and placed his bare skin on the alien’s neck. He had never willingly touched Zim before. Sure they had had their little tussles back years ago in middle school but never had he wondered what the aliens skin actually felt like. It was soft, a tad slippery, but the thing that stood out the most was how it felt like he was touching the side of an ice box.

Zim didn’t move as the human made contact with him. He just sat there, placid and emotionless.

“Why are you,” Dib stopped himself to remove his hand while also trying hard to think of a good next course of action. “Why are you so cold?”

Zim slowly blinked his eyes.

“You’ve never been cold in winters before. Why are you so cold?” Dib could have screamed this time. The emotions he felt were building. He was scared, currently helpless, and needed answers. Dib rubbed his face with the hand he had touched Zim with, feeling the unbearable cold on his check.

“My Irken temperature suits were locked away when he…”

Zim didn't need to explain any farther. The human boy understood now.

“Where are they? We just need to go down there and get them right?”

The alien snickered.

“No way down.”

Zim’s words struck a dagger to Dib’s heart. Of course there was no way down. If there had been then Zim wouldn't be here suffering as he was. Dib had to remain calm though. Hopeful.

“There’s gotta be something around here that still works.” Dib spoke rapidly, unwinding his scarf and tossing it the ground before he shrugged off his coat and flipped it around to lay it on top of the freezing alien. Zim twitched at the touch of the heavy fabric on his chest, the sight choking the boy next to him as he noticed how glazed over the aliens eyes looked.

A wind passed over them both. Dib recoiled himself, feeling the breeze even more directly on his less protected torso. Zim though seemed immune to it now, unfazed by the touch of cold, and that wasn’t a good sign.

“Are you sure? There’s no way down?” Dib spoke in denial as he gazed up and around the house. Holes and scorch marks covered the ceiling, there was enough light coming in from outside that the boy’s eyes had already fully adjusted. Wires hung down like garland, charred pure black. Laser marks even covered the walls.

 _He must have gotten control of Zim’s security, fired on the house itself before short circuiting every bit of hardware in this place,_ Dib thought to himself grimly.

“How long do we have?”

“What?” Zim whispered.

“How long till he gets here? We have to start making plans.” Dib spoke with wavering strength. The boy picked himself up and rubbed his shivering limbs. He hadn’t believed Zim the first time but he wouldn’t make that mistake again. “If we can make it back to my house we can start constructing some weapons."

Zim chuckled, a broken forced chuckle.

Dib didn’t want to ask but he had to.

“What’s funny?”

“Stupid Dib.” The alien finally turned his gaze towards him, peering upwards with what looked like every ounce of strength he had left up into his face.

 _Don’t say it. Please don’t,_ Dib pleaded inside but the damning derision in Zim’s voice was unmistakable.

“He’s already here.”

An explosion broke the sky like lightning, a pinkish hue seeping through the thick cloud cover above, shining down into the broken home and upon the two beings therein. Dib’s heart stopped as the clamor of destruction reached his eardrums mere seconds later.

The two didn’t speak to each other, just listened and breathed as the world outside began to fall. There wasn’t a bunch of screaming, or sirens, or gunshots, it wasn’t at all like how it was in the movies. There was almost no noise whatsoever as the sleeping city stirred like a child to the odd noise coming from above. Curiosity more than panic would drive people to the streets this night. They were unprepared, unarmed, and completely helpless. If Zim was right, everyone was doomed. This silent terror was far worse than anything Dib had experienced before. His heart sped, his eyes fell out of focus, and with every exhaled breath he could hear his own fear coming out with small wheezes.

Dib unthinkingly spun around, looking back at the front door and out towards the open street. He had to do something, think of something, some way to warn everyone of the danger they were in.

“Even as the fiend was frying his brain, Gir just kept laughing.”

Dib froze in place, his standing frame silhouetted by the lights outside. Dib choked, a panicked tear nearly escaping from his eye.

“Laughing. Screaming that it tickled.”

A quick breath scrapped against locked teeth as Dib tried once again to tell himself to remain calm. Maybe Zim had given up, but... he hadn’t, wouldn't. He never gave up, not once, even when the whole world thought he was crazy, he always pulled through it. And he needed to believed he could now too.

“Come’on!” The boy shouted loud enough to speak to the entire neighborhood as he turned back around and leaned over to pick up the slumped alien. “We’ve got to get to my house!”

The green creature made no gesture to help as the boy struggled to loop one of his arms in the alien’s. But determination was key now and Dib had a least a little more left in him. Tugging on him like an ox pulling a plow through the mud, Dib turned and used his back and legs to force Zim from the floor and at least to a wobbly standing position braced against the door frame.

“Stop this, Dib! There’s no point!” Zim barked with a hoarse cough afterwards.

“Yes there is! We have to get out of here. You’re going to freeze to death if you stay here.” Dib stared with fire in his veins into cold alien eyes. “I’m not going to let you die on me here!”

The words he spoke replayed in his mind and a sudden moment of confusion came over him. He… was trying to save Zim. Trying to reignite not only his strong Irken discipline but also his previous unparalleled desire for wanting to be the one to destroy earth. Dib wanted that back. He didn’t like this Zim. He didn’t like this Zim at all.

With a jolt, Dib reached down for the jacket that had fallen off the alien when he had yanked him up to his feet. The boy shoved it against Zim’s chest, holding it there with conviction.

“Put it on.” Dib ordered when the alien simply looked at him bewildered.

Zim finally moved on his own, curling his fingers around the material and swishing it around himself, albeit with very slow, shaky movements. Nodding his head in hardened approval, Dib reached for the scarf he had discarded. With quick movements he wound it around the aliens neck a few times, tightly enough to warm but not choke, refusing to gaze into the creatures eyes as he did though. There was something strange feeling in his gut being so close to Zim, but his will to make sure Zim got through this with him was stronger.

“Can you walk?” Dib questioned when the scarf wrapping was done.

Zim nodded only once. An unsure answer.

“Fine, I'll help you.” Considering he had forced the alien to his feet it didn't surprise him that he was going to also need to help the alien limp along and out of this place.

“You should leave me.” Zim spoke when Dib pulled himself next to him and wrapped his right arm around his back.

“No can do. You know how to stop this guy and I’m not leaving you behind like this.”

With that said, Dib heaved them forward. One step, then two. Zim could in fact walk but the strength in the rest of his body was almost non existent, his head still hung and his torso slumped against the stronger human that carried him. It was going to be a long walk. It was normally only about a twenty-five minute trek from Dib’s house to Zim’s, but with the extra baggage in tow… Dib was sure it would take almost double that. Leaving the house finally behind them, the duo broke into the open air. The wind had picked back up and the chill stabbed both of them now with ungodly precision. Dib tried his best to ignore it even though he wished he hadn’t given his favorite heavy jacket away. Instead he focused his mind on telling his body not to shiver. He couldn't show weakness right now. Not now.

Practically pulling Zim along, they passed through the yard, out the gate and into the untamed streets where the still falling snow was completely untouched so far. It was best to disregard any sidewalks to make their path more straight and less time consuming. Step after feeble step they both took, grasping on to each other as though the numerous people beginning to line porches and doorways weren’t there, staring at them oddly and whispering as the trudged by. The sky turned pink and then black over and over as the boys moved, the rumble that followed up behind it shaking the human's confidence more than the light was. The people standing at their fence line stared upwards and pointed now, more memorized by the alien glow then the horror it could mean for them. Dib felt like he should warn them, tell them that it wasn't something to be admired, but he didn't have the heart and he needed all his energy to keep him and Zim going.

Zim coughed hard after a small time of walking, the horrible impact it took on his body sending him stumbling nearly to the ground if Dib hadn’t used all his strength the keep them both on their feet. Dib sighed heavily in relief as they both remained mostly upright. It bothered him though as he turned his head to check on the creature he held, he felt so powerless.

“Here.” Dib spoke as he took his free hand and pulled the scarf up a little farther on the aliens face so it now covered his mouth. “That will help keep your lungs warm.”

Zim turned slightly to look at him as he adjusted the fabric now around his face. Dib swallowed back some nervousness. But this was all he could really do right now. He couldn’t give the alien any of his strength but at least for now...

They moved slowly along. Too slowly for Dib’s liking. They were only just over half way back to his place now, taking a shortcut through the more business area of town, the crackling in the skies was still a ways beyond them so there was nothing to make him suspect the danger was too close for comfort yet but Dib was getting impatient. He needed to get home, alert his dad to the enemy and use Zim’s knowledge to save the earth from destruction just like he had so many other times.

“You should leave me, Dib.” Zim spoke a bit muffled through the scarf.

“I told you, I’m not gonna do that.” Dib retorted back with arrogance. He didn't want to hear it, whatever lame sob story Zim had to tell as the reason he wanted to be left to die in the cold, there was stuff they both needed to do and Dib was going to make sure that they both got it done. Earth was depending on them both now.

“Dib, he’s already here.”

“I know that, thanks.” The boy once again snapped back with a quick shiver that he mindfully banished afterwards. He had eyes after all and he could even feel it in the air, the destruction this Exterminator was causing somewhere in his city. It boiled his blood.

“No… Dib…” Zim whispered not even loud enough to be heard over the wind noise.

What happened next seemed like a blur to Dib. There was no sound of an explosion, or a laser fired, or anything from what Dib knew. But suddenly, the two of them were broken. 

There had been a stomping behind them. Dib had seen from the street corner a block back a figure; massive, armored, riddled with weapons on every extremity. His limbs had felt suddenly limp, his heart silent, lips and eyes frozen painfully stiff by the mere presence of this thing now turning to walk on the same street they were on. The Exterminator. It was him. Pure black from head to toe, a shiny gloss swirled around him, shining under the street lamps like a bottomless pit. And it was looking at them. Only at them. An alien and a human, stuck in the middle of the road on this freezing December night. 

Zim caught the boy's attention momentarily with a deep sigh, that action alone telling Dib exactly what he had feared. Zim really had surrendered. And that thing behind them was death incarnate.

With animal like ferocity Dib pushed them forward, angling their steps out of the street towards the buildings now as hopeful cover so they could maybe get away from whatever obviously very deadly alien that was. But it wasn’t good enough. Just a few  feet from the sidewalk, Dib suddenly felt a grasp around his entire neck like a tightening collar pulling upwards and lifting him painfully into the sky. His hand balled around a clump of fabric, something that Zim was wearing though he couldn't see it. The boy gasped and choked. He prayed for Zim to save him somehow, to free him from this grasp, but the fabric he held fell sharply away from sight and feeling with another second of panicked asphyxiation. He grasped nothing, nothing but air. His feet touched nothing, nothing but air. The grasp lifted him higher, another few seconds felt like eternity until suddenly he felt the feeling of flight, his body flung sharply away off towards the side of the street. The sensation of being thrown into snow was similar to what Dib would expect a lunge into a cloud would be. When one looks at a cloud, it looks solid, puffy, and light, and when one touches it, it turns into cotton, soft and malleable. That was how this sensation was, except the fling was short, the landing stiff, and the pain it incurred foremost undetectable.

Motionless, deep in the cold Dib laid there momentarily, face down in the white snow, his eyes closed, no breath in his lungs to have been knocked clean out of him with the landing, just caught in a choking mirage of both he and Zim running out of this cold and away to safety. A mirage only though.

There was the sound of a pop somewhere off in the distance. 

The boy turned his face out with a sharp furious life-giving inhale, the world slowly coming back to a more cohesive consciousness, frost sticking to his cheek, watching a black swirling smoke dissipate away from under the street lamps nearby. Dib had not been dealt a grievous injury, in fact he barely felt injured at all, but it seemed though that the jarring of being thrust from your feet, hung in mid-air, then thrown to the snow a couple dozen yards away caused everything to blur so horribly that as the boy tried to roll himself upright his head swam with the power of a tilt-a-whirl at that amusement park downtown.

_He’s coming for me, you fool._

The words echoed around the dazed boy, as he stared blankly upwards into the pink night sky above. _Who said that?_ Dib wondered as he tried to pick himself up to his elbows. Even as things spun, Dib tried to shake it away, the movement only adding to the swirling of buildings and neon signs overhead.

There in the cold he suddenly felt like he could stay forever. The numbing sensation as the snow soaked through his sweaters. He had no desire to run from it. Dib breathed in through his nostrils now, taking in the smell around him. It was clean. Oddly clean, the pure snow covering up the stench that was normally poignant yet so normal to him that to smell the city without it was thrilling. The thrumming noise of explosions beyond was also somehow relaxing, a deep vibration that rumbled straight through his nerves. And then there were all the flurries falling down on top of him. Too beautiful to leave for the confines of a walled building. 

Too beautiful, a beauty to be shared with someone... On a cold night. Maybe near a tree...

“Zim…” Dib mouthed with a dry breath.

Memory jarred his moment of numbness.

Where was Zim? Dib gazed furiously down the street where the attack on the duo had come from, where that creature had come from. But there was nothing there. No sign of The Exterminator, or the black force that had sent him flying, whatever that was.

A blinding pink split the sky right above him. Dib found himself screaming as he covered his ears, the vibrations shattering his eardrums and his senses. Whatever odd thoughts he had had about this dead winter night were gone and the painful realization that he was in danger took hold once more. He needed to get away. He needed to find Zim.  

 _Move!_ Dib commanded himself, fear and necessity regaining its hold over his limbs. He wasn’t winning back any time after all.

Dib scanned furiously around trying to locate where the green alien was. His legs wouldn’t work properly as he tried to stand and he simply fumbled back down into the cold, vertigo from the explosion giving him no sense of balance. His mind was incomprehensibly clouded, his heart still beating to the rhythm of a raging drum. Too many thoughts. Too many breaths he needed to take but suddenly couldn’t. Slipping onto his hands and knees he crawled, still looking for Zim somewhere in the blur. A flash of red caught his eye smashed up in a pile of snow near the buildings to his left, a good thirty feet away. Dib didn’t waste time. He scrambled for it, fighting the slippery essence of compacted snow under foot.

“Zim!” Dib cried as he finally got closer. His knees smacked with a painful thud on the sidewalk as his flailing body crumbled just before the white and red snow mound. But he was close enough.

A foot or two away was Zim, lying still in the frost. His face was turned towards him, his eyes shut, antennae limp, the scarf around his neck nearly unwound with its fringes a simple arm stretch away from where Dib knelt.

“Zim!” Dib spoke again, the word coming out more rushed and emotionless than he had meant.

He had to do something. Anything. Pick the alien up. Carry them onward.

Dib coughed, his lungs and throat on fire. Energy and determination was only a myth in his mind now. Another explosion. Another rumble that shook that boy to his core. The numbness was too much. Whatever was happening now, It was just too much.

“We need to move, Zim!” Dib spoke as loud as he could muster. “We have to get out of this cold!”

_You fool._

Dib could almost hear Zim cackling behind him. Mocking him like he always would.

This cold. This cold was killing them both.

“Come’on!” Dib shouted again, reaching an arm out and grasping onto the end of the scarf that still wrapped around the alien’s neck. Dib pulled on it a bit, the motion yanking the alien’s smooth green head just barely towards him but it achieved no cognitive response from the creature.

The scarf was damp in his grasp, even gloved, Dib could see the dark color it had turned with the extra moisture. Dib held it there. With it in hand he still had a hold on Zim. He still had something.

But it was his fault. All this was his fault.

“No.” Dib spoke out loud, not to anyone or anything in particular but just into the air as a proclamation of his denial.

“Go away.” He suddenly spoke, somehow unconsciously knowing that the horrid black beast was behind him. Dib took a quick glanced over his shoulder, just far enough to get a small blur of the swirling death that he stood against.

“You can’t have him.”

Dib had failed. It was his fault. He had acted like a stupid kid and that had led to this. Two tears slipped from the boy’s eyes, a small sob cracking from his near frozen throat, the action causing him pain as he rightfully deserved it to.

Zim wasn’t moving, His eyes weren’t open. There in the perfect white snow, wearing his favorite red jacket and his gray scarf, Zim laid perfectly still, almost like he was simply asleep.

The boy coughed harshly, the pain of it flaring not only in his chest now but also in his limbs. His whole body slumped forward a tad. Asleep. So wonderfully asleep. And maybe it was time. Time for him to sleep too.

"I'm sorry I didn't belive you, Zim..."

Dib heard a whirring. Felt something hot behind him. The boy choked in fear but he couldn’t close his eyes. He wouldn’t look away. The last thing he would see was the one that he should've been willing to risk it all for. The one that he…-

❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄. ❄.

Dib’s eyes burst open. His breath hitched, his hands and lips shook. Dancing eyes darted around a bit before the boy allowed his mouth to take in a full deep lungs worth of air. Darkness, and the feeling of something heavy on top of him was the first thing he noticed. Flailing his arms in a panic he felt fabric crumple and move to his desire, a blanket thrown off his face as Dib sat up to pant out the anxiety.

Ten seconds he spent whirling his head from side to side. Where was he? He was in a room. In a bed. That’s right. Gazing a bit to his left Dib was almost exactly where he had been six hours before according to the clock on his nightstand. In his queen size bed, under thick blankets, in his room in his apartment.

_All a dream?_

Dib closed his eyes as he let his body and head thump down against a pillow. He counted to five, re-opened them and gazed up at the ceiling.

Yes. All a dream.

Something stirred next to him and it made the human boy jump. With a deep breath, Dib tried quickly to recall who was there in the bed with him. He was sure he knew who but strangely the fear and doubt still gripped his fragile mind that was not quite willing to let him believe yet that the dream was over. Dib reached out an unsteady hand to shake the mass of blankets to his right and the figure that lay beneath them.

“Mmmph…” A groan came from the mound.

“Zim…?” Dib whispered, a feeling of hope and regret taking hold as he realized he was possibly waking up his partner at an obviously not normal waking hour.

“What?” A voice huffed.

Dib sighed in deep relief. It was Zim, rubbing his face as he rolled his whole body to face his lover who had awoken him. Thank the endless cosmos.

“I…” Dib began sheepishly with an exhale but stopped as he saw bright rose eyes blinking up at him.

“What’s wrong?” Zim asked, shifting his body and stretching out his limbs a bit.

“I’m sorry, it’s nothing.” Dib spoke in haste, feeling a flush of embarrassment as he now fully regretted what he had just done.

The two stared at each other, Zim groggily and Dib with shifty eyes that didn't want to meet contact with his acute lover.

"What time is it?" 

"Four-thirty..." The boy replied hesitantly. 

“Bad dream?” The alien asked curiously, although by his tone he already knew the answer.

“Yeah…” Dib answered after a pause. He hated the admission as soon as it left his mouth. He shouldn’t be the kind of person to bother his lover with stupid things like this. He was an adult now after all. But still…

That dream. Zim had… Dib had lost him… And it had been his fault…

“I’m sorry. Go back to sleep.” The boy suggested to the green creature as he twisted to face away from Zim.

“You okay?”

The compassion in the alien’s words caught Dib off guard, even if the words didn't have a lot of emotion behind them. But they normally didn't. If he did get any emotion out of Zim, it was normally anger or agitation.

“I’m fine.” Dib answered very generically as he shuffled around to regain a sense of comfort in his bed, to no avail though.

He was home. This was the apartment he shared with Zim. He knew all those facts, but the images of his dream weren’t leaving and it made him sick. It seemed so real to him. So vivid.

Dib squirmed uneasily for a while, curling into himself for a moment, pulling up the covers and then letting them back out as he stretch his limbs. His head hurt. Whatever mental toll that nightmare had taken on him was beyond unsettling.   

“I’m just gonna get up for a bit.” He finally spoke again with a breathless sigh.

A hand grasped firmly onto Dib’s arm as he began to wiggle out of bed, restraining him from leaving completely.

“Dib.” Zim’s tone reeked of disapproval and Dib’s heart skipped a beat. “Come here.”

The command was not negotiable. The two paused, silent and humble. The grasp on his arm wasn’t painful but it was strong and its connection sent a wave of calm over the boy. Dib forgot at times how steady and collected Zim actually could be, and the boy certainly needed it at the moment. With a deep exhale, Dib closed his eyes and surrendered. Moving with blind, timid motions, the boy slipped his way back into the center of the bed, letting the aliens gentle pull be his guide back towards him. Another arm wormed its way underneath the boy's torso, the two limbs crossing his chest and encompassing him as the alien snuggled him close.

“Go to sleep.” Zim whispered to him, his face obviously just behind his own as the breath stirred in his black hair.

Dib breathed down to relax in the embrace.The soft touch of the alien against his back gave him something to depend on, combined with the solid, heavy, very real hug his lover was holding him in. Dib had tried several times to hear something akin to a heart beat from the alien but he had never found one. But there in the silent room he heard his own there and he wondered if Zim could hear it too, thumping away the seconds of this cold December night.

“Zim?”

“Hmm?” The alien responded lazily.

“Do you hate the cold?”

Dib could only imagine the look that the confused alien more than likely had from such a random question.

“The cold weather does not bother me as much as your terrible, smelly, sweaty summers.” Zim answered calmly.

“So… You like winters here?”

The sound of an agitated snort behind him made Dib’s shoulders twitch a bit. A smile crept onto the boy’s face afterwards though.

“Your winters are… pretty. At times.” The tone from the alien was now a bit reflective as though he remembered something from long ago.

“Pretty?... Like the night you failed to sabotage the lighting event? ” Dib asked slowly yet kind of playfully, a small amount of his fear and anxiousness subsiding with the talk of something far more warm and comforting. “In town square, after everyone had left from boredom. You and I, next to the tree... and we... first... kisse-?.”

“Go to sleep already.” Zim huffed, obviously not interested in reminiscing any longer.

Dib chuckled a bit, letting his eyes wander a tad around the room a moment. Gir laid in his dog bed still fast asleep in his dog suit, rolling over on occasion and kicking out a back leg as he dreamed. Out the bedroom window Dib could see snowfall fluttering down to those gross smelly streets that Zim hated so much. The white frost shone like diamonds to his eyes, lit brightly by the hanging sign on the window pane with its message, “Christmas Dookies.”

Dib chuckled a bit as he read the mirror image from the bed.

“Zim?”

“Hmm?” The aliens annoyed tone reprimanding the male for still talking to him.

“Merry Christmas.”

A deep sigh fluttered upon the nape of Dibs neck.

“Merry Christmas, you stupid human.”

 

~.~.~. ❄ .~.~.~

 

**Author's Note:**

> Aww, isn't that sweet? Zim loves Dib. HE LOVES HIM SO MUCH!!! (sobs helplessly with Gir in the corner)
> 
> This was my first attempt at a suspense fic, I hope you enjoyed it.  
> Constructive comments and Kudo's are always welcome.
> 
> Happy holidays everyone!
> 
> Kori❄Miraju  
> Now you see me. Now you don't.


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